It’s ‘Eight Men In,’ plus 1 rosy addition
- col-dave-mast
- June 12, 2025
- 603
For many decades I have been fascinated with the story of “Eight Men Out,” the career-altering saga of eight infamous Chicago White Sox baseball players from 1919 who saw their careers come to a crashing halt when they gambled on the outcome of the World Series.
In that 1919 season, the White Sox won the American League pennant and were heavy favorites to win the World Series title. In fact, that team was widely considered among the greatest baseball teams ever assembled. However, the team’s owner, Charles Comiskey, was not one to reward his talent and paid them minimal income, something they felt was extremely unfair given the team’s talent.
That set the stage for gamblers like Sport Sullivan and Sleepy Bill Burns and notorious gangster Arnold Rothstein to intervene and entice several key members of that club to turn the odds in their favor financially and throw the series.
The list of players included Shoeless Joe Jackson, knuckle-balling ace Eddie Cicotte, Happy Felsch, Lefty Williams, Buck Weaver, Swede Risberg and Chick Gandil — the latter two of whom initiated the situation.
The movie “Eight Men Out” is one of the most intriguing sports movies ever put to film in my opinion, and it neatly sums up the premise of what took place during that fateful time.
When Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis banned all eight players for life including bench player Fred McMullen, that meant they were ineligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Weaver, who played inspired baseball throughout the series, claimed he never did anything but try his very best and petitioned for reinstatement until his death in 1956.
The name the public and press heaped upon that incredible team was the Chicago Black Sox.
In 1989 Cincinnati Reds all-time great Pete Rose became somewhat of a ninth member of that clan, being banned for life from baseball after betting on baseball as a manager.
Why do I bring this scenario up now?
Because recently U.S. President Donald Trump championed for all of those banned players to be reinstated, and current MLB Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred was so influenced by his rhetoric that he officially reinstated them, lifting the ban.
While every single one of these men have passed away, they now become eligible to be inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Rose, known as Charlie Hustle, should be a shoo-in for election. Rose is the all-time hits leader in MLB history, having collected 4,256 hits, 75 more than Ty Cobb. In fact, every one of MLB’s Top 20 hits leaders has been inducted into the HoF other than Rose.
Yet I’m certain there will be sports writers, who vote for HoF inductees, who will not scribble down Rose’s name out of sheer hatred and spite, despite him being an absolute must, based on his accomplishments.
The other easy choice to induct would be Jackson, who at the time was one of baseball’s premier talents.
You want to talk talent?
Ty Cobb boasts the highest career batting average in MLB history at .366. Jackson is currently fourth at .356. That’s better than Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Stan Musial and all of the other all-time greats.
Jackson was known as a five-tool guy who could run like the wind.
One number that gets used a lot by baseball junkies today is WAR (Wins Against Replacement). The higher the number, the more valuable a player is.
Babe Ruth’s WAR was a mind-boggling 182.6. Gehrig’s was 113.7. Ken Griffey Jr.’s WAR was 83.8. Yogi Berra (59.5), Johnny Bench (70.3), Ichiro Suzuki (60.0), Jose Altuve (52.5) and Shohei Ohtani (46.8) give some perspective. Mike Trout, widely considered an all-time great, is 0.2 because he’s missed so much time to injury.
Jackson’s is 62.2.
With a career cut in half by being banned, Jackson still managed to produce 792 RBI and scored 873 runs to go with 202 stolen bases.
That, my friends, is a baseball Hall of Fame player.
Cicotte also is a curious candidate.
He carved out a 209-148 record with a 2.38 earned run average in a 14-year career. In three of the four seasons prior to him being banned, he produced win totals of 28, 29 and 21. His WAR of 59.3 is extremely strong.
Then there was Felsch, who was still relatively young at 29 when he was banned. He was a dashing center fielder with a flair for the dramatic and a promising career when his tenure was nipped in the bud.
What would have happened to him?
We’ll never know.
And then there is Weaver.
Weaver was just starting to come into his own when he was banned. While not a candidate for the HoF, Weaver was one of those grinder-type players who was just a solid contributor. Think Bill Madlock or Ron Cey from the 1980s or Todd Zeile from the 1990s, guys who just showed up and played their hearts out.
I doubt Weaver was thinking about the Hall of Fame when he continued his mission of reinstatement year after year but simply of clearing his name so this Black Sox stain didn’t tarnish his image for life.
From everything I’ve read, Weaver loved the game of baseball. He lived it, breathed it and wanted to be part of its lore in a positive way.
That was taken away, and I guess with Manfred’s recent removal of the ban, I’m most excited about what that means to his generations of family members because, like Weaver, I love the game. I love its history, its passion, its timelessness and its beauty.
I’m one guy who is pleased to see the stain removed from the eight, if for nothing else for Weaver’s sake.